Alcázar Palace
Monday, after our placement test, we toured the Alcázar Palace. The Alcázar is protected by UNESCO, and still in use today. It's actually the oldest palace in Europe that's still in use!
 | ||||
 |
 |
| This is the ceiling of the hall of ambassadors! There's a really beautiful Spanish saying about this roof (or the roof reminded our tour guide of the saying... not sure. Castilian Spanish, man.) that involves the phrase "Media Naranja" which is "Orange half". Our guide explained that they use orange halves as a metaphor for soul mates because there's no bitter middle stone <3 how cute is that? |
 |
| the intricate walls in the ambassador room |
 |
| Koi pond for mom. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! |
 |
| A close up of the wall! |
 |
| Hand done tiling was on basically every wall. The colors all have significance, and they were the only ones they had access to, which is why almost every building built in the moorish style uses them. |
 |
| The tapestry room. All original! |
Las Setas
Immediately after that tour, it was off to Las Setas with some new friends! Las Setas are the largest wooden structure in the world (so the Sevillanas say!), officially named "Metropol Parasol". They get their colloquial name "The Mushrooms" from their interesting shape!
 |
| Violeta, Manu, Kayla, and Me! |
 |
 |
| So windy that night |
 |
| Las Setas in all their glory |
 |
| From above! |
 |
| Underneath, there is a "Antiguaquarium" that holds everything discovered during the construction process (finished in April 2011). Since there's so much history here, nearly everything they dig up during any construction project is an artifact from the Roman occupation. |
Catedral de Santa Maria de la Sede
This beautiful building is in the center of Sevilla's historic district. It took 100 years to build (not including additions!) because it's that intricate. Historically it was used as a hospital as well as a Cathedral because it was the cleanest place for mothers to give birth.
 |
| Showing off just how big the Cathedral is! |
 |
| These four kings represent the 4 kingdoms that took back Spain from the moors during the Christian re-conquizition. See their unique capes/shields? They carry the tomb of Columbus (one of them- there are ashes scattered across the world). |
 |
| The front two kings. See how the one on the right is holding a spear? It's stabbing a pomegranate, which symbolizes the taking-back of Granada, the last city to fall. (Granada is actually the Spanish word for pomegranate!) |
 |
| This is heaven's door. It only opens for 3 people in the world; the Pope, the King of Spain, and the Cardinal. |
 |
| Over 500 popes, priests, and other holy men are buried here because it's so famous! They want to be right at heaven's door. |
 |
| The first Christian banner in Sevilla. From 1248 and still in incredible condition! |
 |
| Another view of the banner. Look how well preserved it is! |
 |
| The description shows the whole thing |
 |
 |
 |
| Some jerk stole St Anthony in 1874. They were able to recover him and restore it, but there's still a big scar on Murillo's biggest masterpiece. |
 | |||
| Their main altarpiece (Retablo Mayor) is the life's work of Pierre Dancart. It took 44 years for him to make the reliefs alone, and 38 more years for the actual creation. It's the largest altarpiece in the world, made up of 36 gilded relief panels, each showing a scene from the old testament detailing the life of Jesus. It's undergoing a dusting right now, which costs roughly 1,450,766 Euros (1,969,705 USD) and 4 years of poking it with a qtip. |
 |
| Presentation detailing the cleaning process. Can you see the Qtip? Their poor fingers. |
 |
| An "anatomically perfect" life-size Jesus from the 17th century. |
 |
| The Spanish crowns in this Church's treasure room. |
La Giralda
La Giralda is attached to the Cathedral. It was originally part of a Mosque, but was transformed during the Christian reconstruction into a bell tower. It's UNESCO! It's also 104.1 m tall (341.535 feet), and has the best view of Sevilla that I've seen so far.
 |
| Hiking up the ramp, among the roof of the Cathedral. |
 |
 |
| There were little porthole windows all up the tower so I was able to see everything getting farther and farther away. Also, I have a lot of pictures of the same things from varying angles/heights. |
 |
| The bells |
 |
| View of Sevilla from the top |
 |
| At one of the bigger windows near the bottom. They get progressively smaller as you get higher. |
 |
| A map. I was able to go up the windows where the arrows are. That's 35 ramps and 17 sets of stairs. |
Keep on the lookout for more blogs this week, I'm trying to catch up! Lots of love! ~Katie
No comments:
Post a Comment